Effingham Senior Nutrition Program

I volunteered at the senior nutrition program in Effingham, IL. This program aims to help keep senior citizens healthier longer by providing healthy, nutritious meals either at their congregate site or through home-delivered meals. The program does not charge senior citizens for these meals, but instead “suggests” that they make a reasonable donation of a few dollars per meal. The nutrition program receives food for the meals from a nearby catering company, and then they portion out the food into containers to be sent out as home-delivered meals. The rest is kept at the site for the congregate meal. The home-delivered meals are delivered by drivers who volunteer their time to this program. This program is very important to the community and the individuals it serves. Many times older adults live alone or have mobility difficulties, causing either a disinterest or an inability to prepare nutritious meals. Also, some may face financial problems. The senior nutrition program helps to alleviate obstacles such as these for older adults. Helping these individuals to have access to healthy meals in turn helps to improve their overall health, and therefore increase their quality of life.

I really enjoyed working with the director of the nutrition program. She gladly answered all the questions I had about the program, and I could tell she really has a passion for the work she does to help the older adults she serves. She stated that she truly believes that the program is working to feed the hungry. This experience and working with her helped to open my eyes to how essential senior nutrition programs are to disadvantaged older adults. The Effingham senior nutrition program has the potential to help improve the lives of older adults in poverty and others in difficult situations. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience working with this nutrition program. Specifically, I worked in helping to prepare the facility for the congregate meal, helping to serve the meal, helping to clean up the facility after the meal, and I even was able to help deliver a meal to an older lady at her apartment because her meal order came in late. This experience helped me to realize that disadvantage touches people at all life stages, and I was able to see first-hand how essential senior nutrition programs are to the well-being of older adults within a community. Without this program, the nutrition and health of the older adults in the Effingham community would be greatly compromised.

Lindsey Richter